Last week the head of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, said that the EU needed to turn to the public for direction.

Mr Maude said that he believed that the people of Britain would answer the bulk of Mr Prodi's questions with a firm "no": "No, they do not want Britain to be part of an EU superstate. No, Britain is already a world player..."

Last month he said the government was spending millions of pounds on plans for the euro which would be "a huge economic error".

Mr Maude was one of Margaret Thatcher's rising stars, with jobs in the Department of Trade and Industry, the Foreign Office and as financial secretary to the Treasury.

He lost his marginal seat in 1992 and went on to work in the city as managing director for investment bank Morgan Stanley, and non-executive director with Asda Group plc.

In 1997 he won the safe Conservative seat of Horsham and was made shadow culture minister.

Francis Maude was educated at Cambridge University and went on to study as a criminal barrister. He was called to the bar in 1977 and was elected MP for Warwickshire North in 1983.